People are a lot more conscious of the things they put in their bodies than they used to be. Traditional medicine is invaluable and helps to save lives, but when it comes to promoting overall wellness, diet and exercise are the key players.
Your overall health and treatment for underlying disease or chronic pain falls into the hands of your doctor. Your overall wellness is in your hands.
The choices you make to support your journey are in your hands. Becoming an informed consumer will help you decide what supplements or natural wellness aids will add value to your daily routine.
Dietary supplements like turmeric and curcumin have gained favor among the natural wellness community for their unique benefits. If you’re interested in turmeric or curcumin’s ability to prove pain relief, here’s what you need to know before you purchase a supplement.
What Is Turmeric?
Turmeric is a golden root that has been dried, ground, and used for thousands of years. It’s richly culturally embedded within Indian ayurvedic medicine and cuisine.
As a spice, turmeric provides dishes with vibrant golden color and an earthy spiciness similar to ginger. As an ancient medicine, turmeric is purported to provide a laundry list of benefits.
Throughout history, turmeric has been regarded as a folk cure for nearly everything under the sun. It’s been used as a heart disease preventative, a digestive aid, and a blood sugar stabilizer.
Research for many of these applications is very thin, and claims should be taken with a grain of salt. When used as an ingredient, turmeric provides more flavor benefits than wellness benefits.
In order to experience holistic support, one would need to consume far more turmeric than a recipe would call for. Even still, it’s worth adding a healthy dash of turmeric to your homemade curry.
What Is Curcumin?
Curcumin is something called a curcuminoid. It’s a naturally occurring compound found in the turmeric rhizome. Curcumin is believed to be the concentrated source of most of turmeric’s potential benefits.
It’s easy to get confused when you read the label on supplements that claim to have both turmeric and curcumin. All turmeric naturally contains curcumin.
Any whole turmeric product will have some amount of curcumin in it. When supplements advertise more, it generally suggests that they’ve added more isolated curcumin to their turmeric formula.
Some people go straight for concentrated curcumin isolate products. These supplements remove other compounds of turmeric to amp up the percentage of curcumin.
Some may see this as an advantage, and others may see that as a disadvantage. There’s no reason to sacrifice the potential benefits of the other compounds.
What Turmeric and Curcumin Have in Common
There are many things turmeric can allegedly do to promote health, especially as an antioxidant. The same compounds that give turmeric its eye-catching hue also serve as valuable antioxidants that may help to protect against cell damage from free radicals.
Turmeric’s value as an anti-inflammatory, when ingested in large quantities, has been the subject of several studies. This is the benefit that would be most appealing to people interested in using turmeric or curcumin as a natural support for pain relief.
Although turmeric and curcumin cannot cure or heal the source of pain, they can work to reduce general inflammation throughout the body by supporting it throughout its natural healing process. It’s important to note that these benefits only apply to inflammatory pain.
Neuropathic or centralized pain won’t be significantly impacted by turmeric or curcumin.
Which Should I Be Taking?
While there is every reason to remain hopeful that natural supplements like turmeric and curcumin will prove to be medically useful for the management of discomfort and swelling, that’s not where the research is currently pointing. At the moment, research seems to suggest that turmeric and curcumin work better as a complementary treatment.
Your doctor or specialist will help to implement a treatment plan. If you would like that treatment plan to incorporate the use of turmeric or curcumin, ask your doctor. Chances are good that your doctor will agree that you can use turmeric as a part of your treatment plan.
If the source of your pain is something temporary, like an exercise-related injury or a particularly intense flare-up of arthritis you’re already medically treating, turmeric is usually safe to use.
If You Want All The Potential Benefits, You Should Be Using Both
There is well-documented evidence that every compound within turmeric works in unison. Curcumin is simply the concentrated beneficial compound of turmeric, but it isn’t the only valuable compound of turmeric.
Using supplements that combine turmeric with a significant amount of turmeric is most likely to produce noticeable results for your wellness.
Hempvana Uses Turmeric in Our Pain Relief Topicals
Hempvana’s Platinum Pain Cream with Turmeric and Aloe is designed to help combat day-to-day aches and pains. It provides topical relief for conditions like arthritis, post-work soreness, and muscle stiffness.
Our formulas are gluten-free, phthalate-free, paraben-free, cruelty-free, and vegan. They’re designed to suit the needs of everyone seeking a natural source of relief for occasional discomfort.
Hempvana can be used in conjunction with many other prescription medications or treatment plants for pain. Talk to your doctor about using Hempvana cream as a part of your wellness plan.
Hemp Seed Oil
Hemp seed oil helps the skin retain moisture. It’s naturally rich in omega 3 fatty acids and can help the skin feel soft and smooth. Hemp seed oil makes Hempvana’s pain relief creams easy to massage into the skin, leaving it in better condition following application.
Trolamine Salicylate
Trolamine salicylate is the active ingredient in our pain relief cream. We use 10% trolamine salicylate in our formulation, which is the highest percentage allowed for an over-the-counter product. Trolamine salicylate is an analgesic (pain-relieving) agent in the same family as aspirin.
When applied topically, this ingredient helps to relieve aches and pains within the vicinity of the surface of the skin.
The pain or soreness from muscle stiffness, bruising, joint pain, and arthritis can be minimized as trolamine salicylate is applied to the skin. Combine our pain relief cream with a massage to the affected area to maximize its potential relieving benefits.
Turmeric
We’ve infused our pain relief cream with the anti-inflammatory benefits of turmeric. Turmeric can work to support the body’s management of discomfort, potentially leading to a reduction in the experience of pain.
Topically applied turmeric may also work to reduce inflammation at the surface of the skin.
Aloe Vera
Aloe vera is a skin-healthy ingredient with soothing benefits. The plant also acts as a natural anti-inflammatory and naturally promotes wound healing.
Aloe naturally contains vitamins A, C, and E, all of which naturally work to promote skin health and provide protective benefits to the skin as antioxidants.
How To Use Hempvana Platinum Pain Cream With Turmeric and Aloe Vera
Our platinum pain cream can be used to temporarily relieve minor aches and pains. You can massage it into the skin up to four times a day to provide continuous relief.
If your pain persists for more than a few days, you’ll need to speak with a doctor. Hempvana isn’t designed to cure the source of the pain — just to lessen its noticeable effects.
Hempvana’s Platinum Pain Cream should be used in conjunction with the appropriate treatment methods recommended by a healthcare professional. However, it doesn’t replace a doctor’s care or advice.
If you wake up a little more sore than usual, you’ll be happy to have a jar of Platinum Pain Cream on your bedside table. Start the morning with a little massage of the affected area and carry the relief with you throughout your day.